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9 J. Int'l Humanitarian Action 1 (2024)

handle is hein.journals/jinthuma9 and id is 1 raw text is: Sauter Journal of International Humanitarian Action (2024) 9:1 https'//doi.org/10.1186/s41018-023-00146-1 Journal of International Humanitarian Action RESEARCH ARTICLE Open Access #AidToo, or when situation permits rape: sexual violence among humanitarian aid workers Melanie Sauter Abstract This article explores the prevalent issue of sexual violence against and among humanitarian aid workers, with a focus on why the aid sector creates a particularly permissive environment for sexual violence. Although the issue is primar- ily an industry problem, with both perpetrators and survivors being members of the aid community, humanitarian organizations have been hesitant to address the issue. The article argues that legal ambiguities, barriers to accessing justice, and organizational mismanagement contribute to the permissive environment in the aid industry. Draw- ing on secondary survivor testimonies and legal frameworks, I highlight the need for more tangible prevention and follow-up mechanisms for survivors based on the legal duty of care of aid organizations. The analysis underscores the need for a comprehensive and proactive approach to addressing sexual violence within the aid sector, grounded in an understanding of power dynamics and organizational culture. Keywords #AidToo, Sexual violence, Aid sector, Organizational mismanagement, Legal ambiguities, Access to justice Introduction Roland Van Hauwermeiren, Brendan Cox, and Karim Elkorany are infamous names in the aid sector, not for their noble humanitarian work but for their alleged rape and sexual assault of multiple women, including their employees. All three were senior officials at Oxfam/ Action Against Hunger, Save the Children, and the United Nations, respectively, and were able to exploit their positions of power for years (Riley 2020; Neu- meister 2022). While these cases gained prominence for being among the few that were made public, they are by no means isolated incidents. *Correspondence: Melanie Sauter melanie.sauter@stv.uio.no University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway - Spriger Open Sexual violence against and among humanitarian aid workers' is an increasing concern for the humanitarian community, although until recently, it has been a less understood and documented part of attacks on humani- tarian action. This is beginning to improve, although challenges around data collection are amplified when dis- cussing the issue of sexual violence, as survivors may feel ashamed or are afraid of possible negative consequences should they report incidents. This highlights the need to address power dynamics and organizational culture in the sector. 1 The terms humanitarian and aid workers are used interchangeably and follow a definition by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA): 'all workers engaged by humanitarian agencies, whether internationally or nationally recruited, or formally or informally retained from the beneficiary community, to conduct the activi- ties of that agency' (UN OCHA, 2004, 15). SThe Author(s) 2024. Open AccessThis artide is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.The images or other third party material in this article are included in the articles Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the artide's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.To view a copy of this licence, visit http:creativeommons.org/licenses/by/40/.

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